The Importance of Internet: Benefits, Risks, and Online Privacy

Digital Evolution: The Internet’s Global Reach, Power, and Potential Risks

The Internet has been around for about 20-plus years. In its time, it has evolved into this enormous commodity that everyone now uses. The Internet has given us many different things with just a click of a button. Without the Internet, we wouldn’t have T.V.s, cell phones, and other numerous accommodations it provides. If the Internet did not exist, we would have to do everything how we used to before we had the Internet.

We would actually have to put work into doing just a simple task. Without the Internet, a paper that would normally take a day to write could possibly take longer due to having to research everything. While doing research, Mr. Jeff Hancock, a professor at Stanford University, found out that losing internet access for a few days just made people fall behind on their work. “People carried out all the same activities they would have done had the internet been up, but they just did it two or three days later,” Borg says. “The economy is set up to deal with what essentially amounts to a holiday weekend.” This is an absolutely great thing for any and all business. It’s great for advertising, ordering products, and so much more.

An interesting article I read stated, “In 1995, fewer than 1% of the world’s population was online. The Internet was a curiosity, used mostly by people in the West. Fast-forward 20 years, and today more than 3.5bn people have an internet connection – nearly half of all humans on the planet – and the number is growing at a rate of around ten people a second. The world is connected through the Internet. In the same article, it also states that there have been other cities that have “turned off” their country’s Internet for obvious reasons. The article goes on to say, “Some governments also have “kill switches” that can effectively turn off the Internet in their country. Egypt did this during the Arab Spring uprising in 2011 to make it more difficult for protesters to coordinate their activity. Turkey and Iran have also shut off internet connectivity during protests. China is rumored to have a kill switch of its own. And American senators have proposed creating one in the U.S. as a means to defend the country from cyber attack.” I personally think it is a good idea to have a kill switch in the United States, especially with today’s current events. We need to be aware of the dangerous aspects of the Internet. Sometimes the most powerful objects can be the most treacherous.

Online Vulnerabilities: The Thin Line Between Connectivity and Privacy Breaches

Although the Internet has merged our continents together, there are also some alarming facts about the Internet. How much privacy do you really have on the Internet? Well, for starters, anyone can go and google any name. You’ll be surprised what things will pop up. For example, when I googled my full name, my Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter all came up. I was immediately concerned. If I were to get hired at a job, they could easily see my profile and go through my personal life. If there was something I didn’t want them to see, then there could be no escaping because it was public. I am constantly sharing my photos and locations with more than 100 people, and I never thought anything of it until now. Many people take their privacy for granted until it is taken away. Many have fallen ill to cyber problems on social media, which ranges from a simple cyber hack to a total catfish problem. An article I read stated, “Internet security specialists around the web have been constantly warning users of the increasing number of social engineering scams on social media. And the year 2011 is one of reference in terms of the number of attacks, variants of the same threat, and sophistication of social engineering targeting Facebook. And all these come on top of Facebook’s controversial privacy issues.”

Internet Deception: The Dark Side of Digital Identities

Currently, there is a popular T.V. show named Catfish that seeks people who are taking over someone’s identity online. Most of the time, these people will pretend to be someone else to receive things or for revenge. They often get emotionally hurt or, even worse, physically harming that other person. At times there would be the occasional “I fell in love with you, but you wouldn’t like me” excuse. There are many people who find it easy to simply steal photos of people and pretend to be someone else. While looking up stories about using fake accounts, I came across this story about an individual who catfished her own friend.

“I got this message one day from a boy who I went to school with, and he was like, ‘There’s a chick down here on Tinder and Instagram that is using your photos, and a few of my footy mates said they’ve been tuning her.’ I tried to search for her, but I was blocked, and so were my two best friends and my family, so I had to get a person from work to look her up. Anyway — ended up getting a heap of people to report her, so then I thought she was gone. Then, randomly about a month or so after, this guy messages me on Facebook saying, ‘I am sorry for the random add, but someone has been using your pictures — and we’ve been having a relationship over it.’ I was like, ‘What?!’

Internet Safety: Navigating the Web with Caution and Awareness

He was convinced that he wasn’t being catfished because they would talk on the phone, and she would send him several photos a day. But his friends kept telling him that he was. He told me he tried to meet up with her so many times, but last minute she would always bail. One excuse she had was that her boss was really sick and she was going to take him flowers. She then sent a picture of me holding flowers that I had uploaded MONTHS ago and later deleted. Eventually, he got frustrated with the lack of meeting up and cut it off. She then just disappeared one day. I know she is still catfishing, though, because, to this day, I’ve had two other guys tell me they were involved in an online relationship with her via Facebook chat and Instagram Direct. Crazy!” This is a perfect example of how many people take their privacy online for granted. There are many people in the world that are consistently taking other people’s lives and saying it is theirs.

There are many ways we can stay safe from the Internet. For starters, be aware of cyber security for all your electronics. You should then be aware of what is going on around the world. Families are always online, looking at current events or things that are happening, in general, to keep updated. Many people have received emails from numerous junk emails. Sometimes a lot of hacking is done through those types of emails. You automatically open your email, and you are instantly hacked. Another article I read explained other ways people can stay protected while being on the Internet; “Keep your computer’s operating system, browser, and security software up to date. Turn on automatic updates for these wherever possible. Be especially wary and vigilant if an offer demands you act immediately, sounds too good to be true, or asks for personal information. Updating privacy settings on websites and services (particularly on social media and search sites such as Facebook, Google, and Yahoo) is a good place to start protecting yourself. This can usually be done under a “settings” menu option. Since most sites default to information being shared publicly, changing settings will help you make sure your personal information is seen by fewer people. Ideally, you should choose to share information only with people you know.”

Government Oversight and the Vulnerability of the Digital Generation

A recent article it was talking about how the government and the Internet are somewhat working together. Microsoft had a recent court hearing for a gag order that gave the right to the government to look without consent. Although this is already a touchy subject, I feel that the government should have some rights. But, at the same time, how is it okay for them to invade our personal privacy like this? Microsoft wants to limit the control the government has on the Internet, as do many other online companies. In the article, it stated, “The Justice Department will limit its use of secrecy orders that prevent internet providers from telling people when the government has obtained a warrant to read their email during an investigation, according to a department memo issued last week.” This is a resolvent to the issue, but is this an order that will stand its ground for years to come? We, as internet users, need to be aware of sharing too much information. We often don’t think people pay much attention to us, but in reality, there is always someone waiting to find someone vulnerable and gullible.

The younger generation is the most vulnerable of all generations. Younger and younger kids are being given cell phones and other electronics that have access to many different types of applications. When buying these applications, a lot of sensitive information is given online to purchase them. A Lot of the time, parents don’t realize that giving these young children such freedom can actually be hurting them not just physically but also socially. Many people have seen or even experienced this type of hurt over the Internet.

References:

1. “2011: Facebook vs. Internet Security.” BullGuard,www.bullguard.com/bullguard-security-center/internet-security/social-media-d waves of anger/2011-facebook-vs-security.
2. Nuwer, Rachel. “Future – What if the internet stopped working for a day?” BBC, BBC, 7 Feb. 2017, www.bbc.com/future/story/20170207-what-if-the-internet-stopped-for-a-day.
3. Parker, Lara. “17 Of The Most Insane Catfish Stories That Will Make You Cringe.” BuzzFeed, www.buzzfeed.com/laraparker/insane-catfish-stories-that-will-make-you-want-to-delete?u tm_term=.fkAd5pD0D#.qylakJ686.
4. Slain, Morgan. “7 ways to protect your privacy on the internet.” The Next Web, 18 Aug. 2015, thenextweb.com/insider/2015/08/18/7-ways-to-protect-your-privacy-on-the-internet/.
5. Wingfield, Nick. “U.S. to Limit Use of Secrecy Orders That Microsoft Challenged.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 24 Oct. 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/10/24/business/microsoft-justice-department-secrecy.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FPrivacy&action=click&contentCollection=timestopics®ion=str eam&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=3&pgtype=collection.
6. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/24/business/microsoft-justice-department-secrecy.ht ml?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FPrivacy&action=click&contentCollection=timestopics®ion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=3&pgtype=collection
7. https://www.bullguard.com/bullguard-security-center/internet-security/social-media-dangers/2011-facebook-vs-security
8. https://www.buzzfeed.com/laraparker/insane-catfish-stories-that-will-make-you-want-to-delete?utm_term=.fkAd5pD0D#.qylakJ686
9. https://thenextweb.com/insider/2015/08/18/7-ways-to-protect-your-privacy-on-the-internet/

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